Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 37: Worlds Collide

WITHOUT HESITATING, I quickly threw a shield spell around Camille’s family and myself! I instinctively knew Camille had to have done the same time. However, even still, there was a shower of sparks, and I felt my shield lose some energy as a blast wave of metal and concrete hit my shield.

All around us, people were screaming in pain, babies were crying, and total chaos reigned around the rink. Then, finally, I noticed that the ice had cracked in a couple places and that we were the only ones that seemed to have escaped the attack unharmed.

“What the hell is going on?” her dad screamed.

Camille looked at him from the ground and said, “Shut up, Daddy and get Mom and Cassidy out of here!”

I was just debating whether it was wise to go ahead and unveil myself as a Mergent when Caireen decided for me. Then, I felt my new costume materialize, complete with my pacifier face mask.

“I thought you were pretending…?” Camille’s mom started to say as I leaped out of her arms.

“Screw that,” I said. “I can’t let people die!”

I watched Camille quickly perform a spell to remove her ice skates as she magically put on her costume. As I watched her, I realized my ice skates were gone too, and I just hoped my shoes would keep traction on the ice. I began scanning for the enemies that would attack this place. ‘Terrorists? Mergents?’ I asked myself. I found myself drawn to a single figure that curdled my blood and caused Caireen to scream in rage within me.

Impossibly amidst the chaos above us, standing where the statue had been, stood… Rosemerta!

I found myself moving quickly across the ice towards the remnants of the statue, tuning out the bodies I had to jump over. I silently hoped that not everyone around us was dead. As I reached the end, I watched heavily armed police officers shoot their automatic weapons at her. She just laughed them off and kept her eyes on me. “Princess, that’s right, come to me!”

She leaped off the ledge that remained, and I watched her arms morph into wings to glide in front of me.

‘Do not underestimate her, Sofia,’ Caireen urged. ‘We must hold nothing back here!’

I nodded internally to her and used one of my blasts spells to attack her. Impossibly she dodged the spell and laughed, “Oh baby, is that all your mommy has taught you?”

I swore and began trying several other attacks that Caireen had been teaching me. All of them were ineffective, or she dodged them. Suddenly Camille was there, and I watched as she attempted a spell to bind her with golden tendrils of magic. It reminded me of the cage she must have slipped out of in the castle. Sure enough, she laughed, and it vanished with the swipe of her hand.

Impossibly a second later, the cage rematerialized around Camille. She stepped back towards me, and I closed to attempt to kick her in the knee. I failed to move fast enough, though! Rosemerta caught my foot, then grappled with me, turning me over her knee, “Bad Baby!” She screamed at me while bruising my butt with her swat. Before she could land another swat, I charged my skin with magic, and she dropped me.

“Gah!!!” She screamed! I noticed I caused her hands, where she had been holding me, to start smoldering.

Some more cops began shooting at her as she started to come at me again. “Stupid mortals,” she said, and without warning, she flew off and up toward the group of officers.

“Watch out!!!!” Camille tried to warn them, but it was too late by the time she rid herself of her bonds. She killed seven officers in seconds and returned to us.

“We have to end this now!” I told her.

She nodded, “Any ideas?”

Rosemerta landed in front of us and began coming closer to me. “I can’t wait to spank that bottom of yours for real, Princess – that was just a taste of the punishment coming your way. I can’t believe you’ve been so lucky!”

She was within a couple paces now, “It’s not luck,” I told her.

“What do you call it?”

“Courage,” Camille answered for me.

I looked down at the ice beneath her feet. With that, I knew there was only one spell I had not yet tried against her, and I shuddered with the hopelessness it brought me. I didn’t stop to think about it anymore, though, and invoked the spell Caireen had taught me to freeze a person.

“Wha?!?!” She had enough time to say before her whole body turned solid.

I looked at Rosemerta and wondered if she would be dead or just temporarily disabled. That was when several bullets went through her frozen head, and gory shards of iced brains exploded everywhere.

I looked up at Camille with tears and my arms held up to her. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I just caught sight of a familiar-looking man wearing a hat running away from the edge of the upstairs area. ‘He was on the train!’

 
 

CAMILLE HAD HELD me for several long moments while I cried before we became aware of the police officers that had guns leveled at us. “Identify yourselves!” One officer commanded.

“I’m Sora, and this is Emerald Baby,” she said calmly.

“Why did you destroy the statue?” One screamed at us.

I was flabbergasted and about to respond when a costumed superhero appeared. “Officer, I believe you are wrongly accusing these heroes.”

I twisted my head, and my jaw dropped! A lady who appeared to be the heroine called Tigress from the Liberty Watch superhero group stood just feet from me! “They were right here when it happened!”

“Yes, we were here, but we were just skating,” Camille said calmly.

Before he could speak again, another man in a suit came towards us, “Agent Carmichael, FBI,” he identified himself to the others.

One of the officers started, “This is…!”

“Officer, you will stop there. Emerald is a member of the Agency, and we have no doubt that she was only protecting her family and other civilians. You may meet us at our office to ask her for more details, but understand she will not be detained under any circumstances.”

“Agent Emerald,” he said, looking at me. “We have Sora’s family in a vehicle up on the street level. We’d like to go to the office and get an official statement.”

“Sir, we had to change rather quickly into our costumes. Would you be able to lock down the security footage?” Camille asked.

“It’s already done. Emerald’s identity must be kept secret.”

I nodded.

Camille carried me up to the street level. All around us was chaos as paramedics performed triage and did their best to treat the wounded from Rosemerta’s attacks. Sadly, I saw several sheets being dragged across individuals. A paramedic was screaming as he realized the futility of treatment with a little girl who was Lily’s age. I found fresh tears across my face, ‘Caireen, how could she do this?’

‘She was a monster,’ she responded.

‘Is she really dead?’

‘Maybe…’ she said simply.

‘Is there anything I can do for…’

‘Sofia, one of the sad things with monsters is they will always exist. You can only attempt to extinguish them before they harm too many. Today could have been much worse.’

‘She was there for me, wasn’t she?’

‘Yes.’

“Sofia?” Camille asked. “Are you hurt?”

I looked up at her and saw her own tear-streaked face. “Not too bad physically,” I responded as we had a door of a black suburban opened for us.

“Camille!!!” Her mom practically screamed in relief as she hugged her.

Her dad did his best to do the same while holding a shaking Cassidy, who I saw had an accident with everything but seemed to be fine otherwise. I used a spell to change her clothes to a new set and dried her. Her dad and mom looked at Camille, who pointed at me.

“Sorry, I know wet clothes are no fun.”

“Neither are stinky pants?” Camille asked me.

I shook my head, “Anyone happen to grab my bag?”

Camille’s mom looked guilty, “Sorry, sweetie.”

I sighed, ‘Any chance Caireen?’

I felt her thinking, ‘For now, just this one time. You know how to do it.’

‘Really?!?!?!’ I asked excitedly.

‘Really. Don’t forget to include the cleaning spell!’

I thought to myself for a moment to ensure I wouldn’t mess up the spell before using it. Camille looked at me in shock; she had felt the change since she’d been holding my bottom at the time. “You changed yourself?” She asked.

“She said this one time she would let me!” I smiled and hugged her.

Camille’s parents looked a little lost about the whole thing. Cassidy was lost to the world in shock while nursing her thumb. “She hasn’t been allowed to change herself,” Camille told her mom.

“But you just did?”

“My spirit finally let me!!!!!” I smiled and squealed a bit. “Maybe someday I won’t have to depend on everyone else for that.”

The ride after that was noticeably less aromatic for everyone else, so I’m sure they were all quite content with the results. Finally, our crowded vehicle pulled to a stop in front of the building where the FBI’s main offices in New York City were headquartered, and I felt a little in awe. The door was opened for us, and Camille carried me on her hip to the first security point. After an eternity checking our identities out, we were all through, and everyone was given visitor badges except me.

I almost squealed again as it was cool to be given a tag instead that said ‘Agent Emerald.’

“Please come this way,” an agent said while directing us to a bank of elevators.

When we exited them and were led to a waiting room. Looking at Camille’s parents, he said, “I’m sure one of you will want to be in the room as we debrief your daughter and ‘granddaughter.’ Would the other mind staying here with your other daughter?”

Camille’s mom and dad seemed to do some sort of mental conversation before he passed Cassidy over to her, “I’ll go in with them.”

“Thanks,” he said simply, and we were led further down past open office bullpen areas and to another conference room. “Would you like anything to eat or drink?” he asked.

“Juice?” I asked tentatively.

“Does she need a bottle for that?” he asked Camille.

“She’ll be fine with whatever you have - Emerald’s older than she looks,” she said with a smile.

Camille sat in a chair beside her dad and squeezed me tight, “Hannah is going to kill me!”

“Oh shit, she’ll find out from the news…?” I said, panicked.

“No, I texted her on the way,” she told me.

I hadn’t even noticed - that was sad.

The door opened again, and an older agent held out his hand, “I’m Agent Caruthers; I’m in charge of this office for the Bureau.”

“I’m Sora, this is Emerald, and this is my father,” Camille introduced.

“Also known as Camille and Sofia,” he said with a smile.

“Sir, you know you aren’t supposed to…?” Camille’s dad said.

“Don’t worry; this room has been swept twice today. I need to get Sofia up to speed on some changes in her assignment while she’s here. That’s how we made it to the scene so fast; we were supposed to be contacting her… We’ll only use their codenames when the wonderful officer from NYPD and the EPC representative show up in a minute.”

“EPC?” I asked nervously.

“Don’t worry; you’re safe from arrest due to your credentials, Emerald,” he told me. “Oh, I see they gave you a name badge, but they didn’t give you a proper badge and shield yet, did they?” He smiled.

He handed me a folder badge like I had seen on TV all my life. When I opened it, I read my code name and saw the golden shield with an eagle at the top. ‘Federal Bureau of Investigation’ and ‘Department of Justice’ below it with the picture from my GEID. I felt a bit in shock as it blew my mind to have one. “This is…”

“Really cool?” He finished for me. “I must have practiced flipping that open a hundred times the first day I got mine.” His smile was genuine, and I was grateful to have an ally in that room.

I smiled back at him, “Thank you, sir.”

“You might put that away for now, but I think you’ll need it when the local EPC idiot gets here.”

I gaped at him, “I see you have as low of an opinion of them as I do.”

“Probably lower,” he admitted. “Depending on the officer the NYPD sends down, they could be worse! Be careful; there are too many on the Sanguis Primum rosters right now.”

I nodded, “The one that tried to accuse us initially is probably one of those.”

Barely two seconds after I had placed it in the same small purse that I carried my GEID in, the door opened again. Two men walked in at the same time, one dressed in a suit and the other more casually with an NYPD Detective’s shield on his belt. “Detective, let’s get this fugitive in handcuffs already and get her out of here!” The man in the suit commanded.

 
 

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